Dominic Walsh to Take Sabbatical from DWDT

Running a dance company can be all-consuming, especially when you serve as both its artistic director and principal choreographer. Trey McIntyre, whose Trey McIntyre Project is giving its final performances this month, recently told The Washington Post that the additional fundraising and administrative aspects of his job became too overwhelming, and contributed to his reasons for disbanding the troupe. “I’m really burnt out,” he said.

Dominic Walsh—whose company, Dominic Walsh Dance Theater, has brought cutting-edge contemporary ballet to Houston audiences for 12 years—made a similar remark recently. In a statement released Friday, he announced he is taking a sabbatical, suspending the company’s 2014-2015 season.

“This decision will allow me to explore other opportunities and interests that I simply have not been free to spend time on with the many obligations I’ve committed to for these 12 years,” Walsh said in a statement. “I look forward to accepting opportunities to create and stage my works, teaching classes as a guest and coaching ballets.”

Walsh also notes that the sabbatical will give him more time to support his partner, Domenico Luciano, a former DWDT member now a principal dancer at Colorado Ballet. While he makes no mention of folding the company, his future plans for DWDT remain unclear.